Martin Scorsese

"When Taxi Driver was up for Best Picture, it got three other nominations: Best Actor [Robert De Niro], Best Supporting Actress [Jodie Foster], and Best Music. But the director and writer were overlooked. I was so disappointed, I said: 'You know what, that's the way it's going to be.' What was I going to do, go home and cry?" - Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese first gained notice for his earliest feature films Mean Streets (1973) and Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974). Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980) established him as a major director, and he's since turned out at least one film every couple of years, including The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), GoodFellas (1990), Casino (1995), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), and Shine a Light (2008).

MAGNETISM

Martin Scorsese has been married five times so far, including to Italian-Swedish actress Isabella Rossellini, so he's got to be some sort of ladies' man. With his combination of cultured intellect and mile-a-minute endless stream of anecdotes, we're certain that he's capable of keeping a potential love conquest enthralled for hours. The fact that he's a major film director, with all the power that comes with that territory, must certainly add to his appeal to cinephiles of the female persuasion.

SUCCESS

Though he has yet to pick up an Oscar himself, Martin Scorsese has directed five actors to Academy Award triumph -- Ellen Burstyn, Robert De Niro, Paul Newman, Joe Pesci, and, most recently, Cate Blanchett. He has also directed almost a dozen more to Oscar nominations, including first-time nods for Jodie Foster, Winona Ryder, Sharon Stone, and Alan Alda. The director himself has received five Oscar nominations for directing, as well as a Best Adapted Screenplay co-writing nod (for 1993's The Age of Innocence).

Even if the Academy Award has eluded him thus far, Martin Scorsese has won many other prestigious prizes and accolades to make up for it. Taxi Driver won the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, and Scorsese picked up the Best Director Award there in 1986 for After Hours. GoodFellas earned him a Best Director prize from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards (BAFTA), the New York Film Critics Circle, the L.A. Film Critics Association, as well as the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion. Gangs of New York won him his first Golden Globe in 2003.

In 1991, the French government named Martin Scorsese a "Commandeur des Arts et Lettres," the same year the American Cinematheque honored him for his outstanding career. He won the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award in 1997 and a similar honor from the Lincoln Center's Film Society the following year. 1998 also found him serving as President of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival. Martin Scorsese was selected by Entertainment Weekly as the fourth greatest director of all time, and received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame in 2003.

Martin Scorsese Biography

Martin Scorsese was born into a Sicilian-American family on November 17, 1942, in Flushing, Queens, New York, and grew up in the Little Italy neighborhood of Manhattan's Lower East Side. An altar boy during his youth, he gave serious consideration to becoming a priest, and entered a seminary when he was 14. The priesthood took a backseat to his growing passion for cinema, and he redirected his studies to major in film at New York University, from where he graduated in 1964.

martin scorsese directs mean streets

Early shorts such as It's Not Just You, Murray! (1964) and The Big Shave (1967) were screened at the New York Film Festival. Martin Scorsese received a Master's in Film Studies from NYU in 1968, and lectured there from 1968 through '70. Martin Scorsese's first feature film, Who's That Knocking at My Door, which also marked Harvey Keitel's big screen debut, was released in 1969. He next served as assistant director and co-editor for the Woodstock documentary (1970).

Renowned B-movie producer Roger Corman approached Martin Scorsese to direct Boxcar Bertha in 1972, while Mean Streets (1973) featured Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro as small-time hoodlums in Little Italy. The violent, early '60s rock and roll-fueled feature received critical acclaim and established Scorsese as an up-and-coming director. His next film, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), starring Ellen Burstyn as a recently widowed mother, won her a Best Actress Oscar. The director accepted the award for the absent actress.

martin scorsese makes taxi driver

In 1976, martin Scorsese brought the nightmare journey of Travis Bickle to the screen in Taxi Driver. The dark commentary on contemporary society received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, in addition to acting nominations for Robert De Niro and 14-year-old Jodie Foster.

New York, New York (1977), a big-budget musical set during the 1940s, costarred Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli, while 1978's The Last Waltz was a masterfully directed concert film documenting the final performance of The Band. Raging Bull (1980) solidified Martin Scorsese's reputation as a director to contend with. The story of middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta was shot in graphic black and white, and received widespread acclaim. It earned eight Oscar nods including Best Picture and Best Director, and won two, for Best Actor Robert De Niro, and Best Editing.

martin scorsese directs the color of money

1983's The King of Comedy, a dark comedy about fan obsessiveness, reunited Martin Scorsese with Robert De Niro for a fifth time. After Hours (1985), a night in the life of a date gone really bad, won him the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival. He directed veteran actor Paul Newman to his sole Oscar victory in The Color of Money (1986), which costarred an up-and-coming Tom Cruise.

In 1987, Martin Scorsese directed Michael Jackson's music video for "Bad." The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Martin Scorsese's most controversial film to date, drew the wrath of some religious groups, and earned him his second Best Director Oscar nomination. He contributed a segment entitled "Life Lessons" for 1989's New York Stories, which featured contributions from Woody Allen and Francis Ford Coppola.

martin scorsese makes goodfellas

The director returned to form with 1990's GoodFellas, which reunited him with Robert De Niro and Raging Bull costar Joe Pesci. The epic saga, based on the memoirs of Henry Hill, became Martin Scorsese's winningest picture, receiving the Best Director prize from the New York, L.A., Chicago, and National Society of Film Critics, the Venice Film Festival, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards. Joe Joe Pesci took home an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, while the film and Martin Scorsese himself also received Oscar and Golden Globe nods.

His next two projects were remakes. 1991's Cape Fear won Robert De Niro and supporting actress Juliette Lewis Oscar consideration, and became one of his most commercially successful films to date. 1993's The Age of Innocence gave Martin Scorsese Best Director nods from the Directors Guild of America and the Golden Globes, and won him a National Board of Review Award. It also landed him a Best Adapted Screenplay co-writing Oscar nomination.

martin scorsese directs casino

He and Robert De Niro teamed up for an eighth time for 1995's Casino, costarring Sharon Stone, who received a Golden Globe award and an Oscar nod for her performance, while Martin Scorsese himself earned his fourth Golden Globe nomination for Direction. In 1995, the British Film Institute commissioned A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies, a four-hour documentary made to tie in with cinema's 100th anniversary.

martin scorsese and gangs of new york

Martin Scorsese received an American Film Institute Life Achievement Award in 1997, the same year Kundun, which tells of the early life of the current Dalai Lama, was released through Disney. The Chinese government had threatened the studio from releasing the film, and Martin Scorsese was put on a list that barred him from entering Tibet. 1999's Bringing Out the Dead starred Nicolas Cage as a paramedic on the edge. That same year, Scorsese was awarded with an Honorary Cesar from France for his body of work.

Martin Scorsese had dreamed of making Gangs of New York since the late '70s. The grand chronicle of life in New York's Five Points during the mid-19th century, costarring Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and Daniel Day-Lewis, finally saw the light of day when it was released in December 2002. Martin Scorsese received his first Golden Globe for Best Director, as well as his fourth Academy Award nomination for Directing.

martin scorsese directs the aviator

Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues -- A Musical Journey, executive produced by the master director, was broadcast on PBS in 2003, the same year he received a lifetime achievement award from the Directors Guild of America. The Aviator (2004), a biopic of early Hollywood mogul and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes, won a Golden Globe for Best Drama, as well as Oscar nominations for Best Picture and actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Alan Alda, while Cate Blanchett took home the Best Supporting Actress award.

In addition to making bit appearances in his own movies, like Taxi Driver, After Hours and Gangs of New York, Martin Scorsese also provided the voice of "Sykes" in 2004's animated feature, Shark Tale.

Martin Scorsese earned a fifth Best Director nod from the Academy, but was bested by Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby. He was named honorary president of the Vienna Film Museum for his work in the preservation of films in 2005. He also directed a documentary film on the life of Bob Dylan called No Direction Home: Bob Dylan.

martin scorsese and the departed

In 2006, Martin Scorsese's project was The Departed, again starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It won the Academy Award for Best Picture. He also directed Shine A Light, which documented two 2006 performances that took place during rock and roll band The Rolling Stones' A Bigger Bang tour. The flick obviously starred Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

His upcoming projects include 2009's Ashecliffe, and look out for a 2010 Martin Scorsese-directed documentary on the life of Bob Marley.